As a parent and researcher, I am seeing an alarming trend. Children born just five years ago are expected to face between two- and seven-fold more extreme climate events, such as heatwaves, than their parents or grandparents. Unlike past generations, today’s young people are inheriting not only the planet as we left it but also a mounting burden of climate stressors that can shape their lifelong health and future.
It’s not rocket science that children deserve clean air to breathe, safe water to drink, nourishing food to eat, and communities that protect — not threaten — their developing bodies and brains. Yet new findings from the Children’s Environmental Health Network’s Alaska Profile for Children’s Environmental Health make one thing painfully clear: In Alaska, children face environmental risks significantly above the national average, and the consequences are profound.
Children’s Environmental Health Indicators, or CEHIs, help us understand three things: environmental hazards, children’s exposure to those hazards and the health outcomes that follow. For Alaska, the data should spark urgent action.
• Alaskan children are more likely to face unsafe drinking water.
In 2023, 43.6% of Alaska’s public water utilities had drinking water violations far higher than the U.S. national rate of 27.6%. Clean water should never depend on geography.
• Toxic releases are massive.
In 2023, Alaska industries disposed of or released 899 million pounds of toxic chemicals a staggering number, even when compared with the U.S. total of 3.3 billion pounds. Many of these chemicals, such as mercury, arsenic and lead, are known developmental and neurological toxicants.
• Children’s bodies are showing the consequences.
Between 2017 and 2021, 2% to 4.7% of Alaska children under age 6 who were tested had blood lead levels at or above the level the CDC considers elevated, compared with 1.3% nationwide. Because many at-risk children are never tested, this is almost certainly an undercount.
There is no safe level of lead for children. Even low exposures can weaken and alter health in ways that shape a child’s entire future. What’s more, neurodevelopmental disorders are more common than the national norm. Alaska reports that 12.6% of children ages 3–17 have ADHD, compared with 10.5% nationally.
Infants and children are not “small adults.” Pound for pound, they breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food. Their bodies and brains are still rapidly developing, making them especially vulnerable to harmful exposures. A toxic insult in early life, not just a major one, but an everyday one, can lead to both immediate symptoms and lifelong consequences.
Add to this the accelerating realities of climate change. Alaska is warming faster than any other U.S. state, and children are more vulnerable to the cascading health effects of heatwaves, wildfire smoke, flooding and extreme weather. Environmental threats are compounding, not isolated.
In the past five years, Alaska has taken meaningful steps to strengthen children’s environmental health protections. The state secured CDC funding for lead-poisoning prevention and an Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry cooperative agreement to improve surveillance and response. And in 2024, Alaska passed S.B. 67, banning firefighting foams containing PFAS “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, immune dysfunction and developmental harm.
These actions deserve recognition. They also prove that Alaska can act decisively when children’s health is at stake. When we protect children’s environments, we improve every aspect of their futures and you don’t have to be a policymaker or scientist to help protect Alaska’s kids.
• Stay informed and speak up.
Public comment periods on environmental regulations, water quality standards and industrial permits matter. Showing up matters more.
• Support statewide investment in children’s environmental health.
Advocate for expanding lead testing, improving drinking water infrastructure and strengthening monitoring of toxic releases.
• Back policies that reduce exposures before they occur and vote with children’s health in mind.
Prevention is cheaper — and far more effective — than responding to harm after the fact.
The data in this new Children’s Environmental Health Profile is not a forecast; it’s a diagnosis. The question now is whether we act on it. Alaska’s children need clean water, clean air and a future free from preventable toxic exposures. We have the knowledge, we have examples of progress and we have a responsibility to ensure that every child grows up in an environment that helps them reach their full potential.
The health of Alaska’s children is not just a policy issue, it is a moral one. And it demands our action now.
Dr. Mariah Seater is a resident of Anchorage, a parent and an engaged public health practitioner focused on environmental justice and human health.
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Most of December and the first two weeks of January were very cold in most of Alaska and northwest Canada. I posted about the cold in the first half of December here, the cold snap through Christmas here, December overall for Alaska here and Arctic context for the cold snap in the December climate review here.
This post serves as an event recap, though because of the breath and duration of event this review is necessarily selective. Also I have only limited tools to assess the historical context of this event in northwest Canada, so I’ve surely missed some important highlights. Because this event was international scope, I provide temperature information in both degrees F and degrees C. This makes the post longer, but I hope it’s relevant whatever your preferred temperature scale.
The 2025-26 cold snap was distinguished primarily by the long duration of the very cold weather rather than daily extremes. Based on ERA5 Land reanalysis, for Alaska overall, every day but two between December 4 and January 15 was colder than the 1991-2020 baseline average (Fig. 1 top), making this the most significant prolonged cold snap since 2012 (which was colder). For the Yukon Territory, every day between December 5 and January 9 was colder than average (Fig. 1 bottom).
The coldest period for northwest North America overall was December 5 to January 15 (Fig. 2). The departures are quite markable given this is a seven week period.
For the Yukon Territory overall the coldest day was December 22, with temperatures south of 65°N widely 20°C or more below normal (Fig. 3). The very low temperatures extended into the eastern Interior, but Alaska west of about 160°W was notably warmer than normal.
The coldest day from the central Yukon Territory westward into eastern and central Interior Alaska was January 4th (Fig. 4). Temperatures in southern YT were not quite as low as around winter solstice. With above normal temperatures across the Alaska Peninsula this wasn’t quite coldest day for Alaska overall.
The coldest day for Alaska overall was January 8, anchored by the deep cold over southwest mainland but temperatures widely 15°F (9°C) or more below normal over mainland Alaska (Fig. 5). At this point temperatures had moderated considerably in the Yukon Territory and Southeast Alaska.
The lowest temperatures recorded during December and January (Fig. 6) were notable, though not to record levels across Interior Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Both Tok and Chicken, Alaska, with lows of -63F (-52.8C), recorded the lowest temperatures at their respective locations since January 2009. Fairbanks’ and Tanana’s lowest temperature was the same as the low in 2024, and Bettles had a lower temperature last winter. Carmacks, YT reported the lowest temperature since 1996 but Whitehorse, Dawson, Beaver Creek and Pelly Crossing all had the lowest temperature only since 2022.
Beyond the Yukon and Interior Alaska there were a few daily records and other short term extremes during this cold snap.
Juneau airport low temperature of -10F (-23.3C) on December 22 and 23 were daily record lows and also the lowest temperature there since 1995.
In Southcentral Alaska there were a scattering of daily record lows the first and second weeks of January. Talkeetna set a daily record of -38F (-38.9C) on January 8. This is the first daily record low to be set in January since 1975. Also notable was the exceptionally cold January 3rd at Portage Glacier Visitor Center southeast of Girdwood. Calm winds and clear skies allowed the temperature to stay low all day, with a high temperature of -22F (-30.0C) and a low of -30F (-34.9C) the coldest day at this location since the observation site was established in 1998, though January 1989 probably had at least one day as cold or colder. Kenai’s low temperature of -36F (-37.8C) on January 8 wasn’t a daily record but it was the lowest temperature there since 1999.
In Southwest Alaska, King Salmon set daily record lows on two days and Bethel on one day.
The duration of cold snap is illustrated in these site-specific highlights:
Fairbanks Airport:
21 days with lows of -40F/C or lower, all between December 14 and January 13, the most since the winter of 1970-71
57 hours with dense ice fog (visibility one-quarter mile or lower), the most since the winter of 2008-09
30-day average temperature -31.0F (-35.0C) December 15 to January 13, the lowest since 1970-71
Tok: 22 days with lows of -50F (-45.6C) or lower, all between December 8 and January 6
Chicken: 29 days with lows of -40F/C or lower, all between December 6 and January 10
Notable “consecutive days” streaks include:
Fairbanks Airport:
32 straight days high temperature 0F (-17.8C) or lower (December 14 to January 14), second longest on record
43 straight days with daily low temperature -10F (-23.3C) or lower (December 4 to January 15), second longest on record
Tanana:
Eagle (cooperative station):
42 straight days with daily high temperature 0F (-17.8C) or lower, (December 5 to January 15), longest on record
Northway:
Anchorage:
Dawson, YT: 19 straight days with lows -40F/C or lower, longest since 1996
The daily temperature ranges are shown at Fairbanks and Tok (Fig. 7). Fairbanks, the westernmost location shown, had two notable moderating events in December, both associated with pulses of warmer air aloft moving from the Bering Sea into the central Interior and both produced significant snowfall. The first of these made as far east as Tok. Also notable at all these valley locations are a number of very cold days with only a few degrees spread between the high and low temperature. These days were clear (excepting local ice fog) and calm and vividly illustrates that although the sun scraps above the horizon for a few hours, in December and early January this provides no significant solar heating poleward of 60°N.
The cold was particularly unrelenting at Dawson, YT in December (Fig. 8, top), although the coldest day occurred on January 4. At Whitehorse (Fig. 8, bottom), there we two distinct episodes of deep cold, one in early December and another around winter solstice.
An historical perspective on this cold snap at Fairbanks is shown in the times series plotting the coldest 10-day periods each winter since the early 1900s (Fig. 9). By this measure, this cold snap was slightly colder than 2011-12 and not quite as cold as 1988-89. However, about a dozen winters prior to 1980 had a 10-day period colder than this event.
The mid-atmospheric flow pattern and its slow evolution in December and January explains a lot of what happened on the ground. During the second half of December (Fig. 10, left) extremely strong high pressure aloft over the Bering Sea supported high pressure at the surface over eastern Interior Alaska and the Yukon. Because of the lack of solar heating, clear skies allowed continuous escape of heat from the top of the snowpack to outer space, with the cold air pooling in valleys. In early January (Fig 10, right) the pattern changed, with a general westward shift of the high and low pressure centers aloft compared to December. For example, the the Being high pressure shifted northwest to be near the Sea Of Okhotsk, while the low pressure over central Arctic Canada in December shifted west to be over the Beaufort Sea in early January. This westward “retrogression”, so-called because it’s in contrast to the more usual west-to-east progression of mid-latitude weather features near ground, is a common feature of the mid-atmosphere flow pattern during the cold season.
Hundreds of women took to the freshly groomed trails at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park in the sunshine Sunday to celebrate 30 years of costumes, camaraderie and community.
The Alaska Ski for Women is a fundraising event that supports the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage and Alaska nonprofits working to end the cycle of domestic violence in our community.
Twenty years have passed since scientists released the first version of the Arctic Report Card, now a staple at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Way back in 2006, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration press people handed a paper version to reporters. Now it is a digital affair, more than 100 pages.
Since the late 1970s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell ned.rozell@alaska.edu is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute.
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